Poster from TMDB
OverviewAI-generated
Freaks is a 1932 American black-and-white horror, thriller, and drama film directed by Tod Browning. The cast includes Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, and Roscoe Ates. Screenwriters Tod Robbins, Al Boasberg, Willis Goldbeck, and Edgar Allan Woolf adapted the story from a work by Tod Robbins. The film was produced by Tod Browning, Harry Rapf, Dwain Esper, and Irving Thalberg, with production design by Cedric Gibbons.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced and distributed the film, which is also available via Netflix and Bloodstream. It was released in English, French, and German. The runtime is 64 minutes. The film holds a review score of 8.5 out of 10 and 95 percent, with a Metascore of 80 out of 100. It is part of the National Film Registry.
Synthesized by Vinony from 45 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, IMDb, OMDb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.8A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
Cast
- Harry Earles as Hans
- Olga Baclanova as Cleopatra
- Daisy Earles as Frieda
- Henry Victor as Hercules
- Wallace Ford as Phroso
- Leila Hyams as Venus
Themes
- infidelity
- dwarf
- attempted murder
- clown
- beauty
- carnival
- romance
- revenge
- murder
- black and white
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Ratings
IMDb
7.8/10
54,394 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
95%
Metacritic
80/100
- Year
- 1932
- Runtime
- 64 min
- Genres
- Drama, Horror
- Rated
- Not Rated
- Awards
- 2 wins & 1 nomination total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Tod Browning
- Screenplay by
- Willis Goldbeck Leon Gordon
- Based on
- " Spurs ", 1923 short story in Munsey's Magazine , by Tod Robbins
- Produced by
- Tod Browning Harry Rapf (uncredited) Irving Thalberg (uncredited)
- Starring
- Wallace Ford Leila Hyams Olga Baclanova Roscoe Ates
- Cinematography
- Merritt B. Gerstad
- Edited by
- Basil Wrangell
- Production company
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Distributed by
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Release date
- February 12, 1932 ( 1932-02-12 )
- Running time
- 64 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Languages
- English, German, French
- Budget
- ~ $310,000
- Box office
- $341,000
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Part of
- National Film Registry
- Genre
- drama film
- Country of origin
- United States
- Original language
- German
- Movement
- Pre-Code Hollywood
- Director
- Tod Browning
- Cast member
- The Doll Family
- Producer
- Irving Thalberg
- Production company
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Cinematographer
- Merritt B. Gerstad
- Duration
- 64
- FilmAffinity ID
- 970488
- Distribution format
- video on demand
- Image
- Poster - Freaks 02.jpg
Show 10 more facts
- Commons category
- Freaks (1932 film)
- publication date
- 1932-01-01
- title
- Freaks
- color
- black-and-white
- distributed by
- Netflix
- after a work by
- Tod Robbins
- copyright holder
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- scenographer
- Cedric Gibbons
- assessment
- Bechdel test
- review score
- 95%
Sources (15)
via Wikidata · CC0
~39 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Freaks (also re-released as The Monster Story, Forbidden Love, and Nature's Mistakes) is a 1932 American pre-Code drama horror film produced and directed by Tod Browning, starring Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, and Roscoe Ates.
Freaks, originally intended as a vehicle for Lon Chaney, is set amongst the backdrop of a travelling French circus and follows a conniving trapeze artist who joins a group of carnival sideshow performers with a plan to seduce and murder a dwarf in the troupe to gain his inheritance. However, her plot proves to have dangerous consequences. The film is based on elements from the short story "Spurs" by Tod Robbins, first published in Munsey's Magazine in February 1923, with the rights being purchased by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Cedric Gibbons, a childhood friend of Robbins and MGM art department chief, was responsible for the purchase.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Freaks” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.